"Sharing of information, best practices, and, potentially, resources, in order to ensure everyone makes the best possible decisions at any given time, while preserving provincial jurisdiction, should be part of the picture in Canada’s response to the next – because there will be a next – health crisis."

Premiers from each of Canada's 13 provinces and territories at a Council of the Federation meeting on Dec. 2, 2019 in Mississauga, Ont. Victoria Gibson/iPolitics photo

Listening to Canadian politicians today, it is hard to believe that one of the main issues of the last federal election, just six months ago, was intergovernmental relations. Justin Trudeau found himself reelected in the middle of a “national unity crisis”, as several provincial governments were openly hostile to several of his government’s main policies, and some went as far as fuelling the fire of separatist movements. Nobody then would have been able to predict that a major national health crisis would lead to such federal-provincial collaboration.

Despite some early frustrations with the federal government, especially with respect to the management of incoming travelers in the country’s international airports, there now appears to be a consensus that fiscal measures put in place by the Trudeau administration were adequate and will be key to a speedy recovery of the Canadian economy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford went as far as thanking, on several occasions, Prime Minister Trudeau for the help he sent provinces’ way in order to support workers affected by the crisis. This newfound relative peace between federal and provincial governments is as surprising as at is welcome in a time of crisis.

However, the same cannot be said of horizontal, or interprovincial, collaboration.

In the past few weeks, we have witnessed some very intense – and very public, with an anxious and home-bound population watching intently – policy learning between provinces. A dizzying array of measures attempting to contain the virus while conserving the public peace was announced each day by provincial premiers, during quotidian press conferences, which have now become routine. These announcements often felt like premiers were looking over their shoulders at their provincial counterparts, trying to figure out what would be their neighbours’ next moves.

Would there be more stringent confinement rules? Heftier fines for breaking those rules? The purchase of iPads for seniors in nursing homes? Interprovincial border travel restrictions (the constitutionality of which, by the way, remains to be tested)? Provincial chief public health officers, often flanking provincial premiers during these press conferences (and who have become the new rock stars of Canadian politics in the midst of this crisis), have been even more candid about their lack of information coming from other provinces, be it on the number of cases, testing rates, or fatality rates. They were getting this information at the same time as the general population.

Of course, provincial premiers should have, and have effectively used, the freedom to act in a variety of ways in order to respond with measures proportionate to the development of the pandemic on their respective territories. This is exactly the reason for the existence of a federal division of powers – for local governments to adapt to local circumstances. Nevertheless, in the middle of a global health crisis, and knowing what we know about the propagation of COVID-19, interprovincial communication lines, both at the political and at the health policy level, should have been open – and thoroughly used – from the beginning. Guessing games should have been replaced by concerted action, and a pooling of knowledges and resources on best practices, especially between neighbouring provinces who face the risk of cross-contamination.

In the aftermath of this crisis, reports are sure to be written both at the federal and provincial levels, to evaluate the adequacy of governments’ response to the crisis and in order to ensure lessons learned do not get lost. Among these, a look will likely be taken at the federal government’s jurisdiction over the stockpiling of medical material, and the setting of national standards, in order to achieve, for example, benchmark levels of testing across the country in cases of epidemics – which would have led to a better overall predictive capacity in all provinces during this crisis. But these reports should also reflect on the need for better collaboration between provinces, who are used to managing the jurisdiction of health care in watertight silos. Sharing of information, best practices, and, potentially, resources, in order to ensure everyone makes the best possible decisions at any given time, while preserving provincial jurisdiction, should be part of the picture in Canada’s response to the next – because there will be a next – health crisis. Let’s not let the lessons we are learning right now go to waste.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

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Stéphanie Chouinard joined the Department of Political Science at the Royal Military College in 2017 and was cross-appointed to Queen's University in 2018. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal. Her research focuses on official languages, constitutional politics, federalism, intergovernmental relations, and Indigenous-settler relations.